It was a bad week for democracy in Ukraine – what there was being as close to the real thing as canned laughter on TV shows to genuine mirth

Attempts to prosecute former opposition parliamentary candidate, Viktor Romanyuk, who was the clear leader until Party of the Regions candidate Zasukha got results in some polling precincts cancelled make any assurances given at the summit seem depressingly empty

In a particularly worrying development, Viktor Romanyuk who recently stood for election to parliament from the opposition Batkivshchyna Party in the problematical single-mandate electoral district No. 94, has been arrested in Italy

The civic network OPORA has given a pretty damning assessment of the first 100 days of the Verkhovna Rada’s work with the latter term to be understood very loosely since for 53 of the 100 days parliamentarians didn’t work at all.

The Cherkasy branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports that in elections for the Sharin Village Council, the Party of the Regions candidate received 100% of the votes

The Civic Network OPORA has been monitoring the legislative activity (or otherwise) of current MPs and finds that during February over half took no part in any legislative work

OPORA has drawn attention to the questionable situation where public funding is allocated to pay MPs substantial amounts for “assistants”, yet the public and media are refused information about who these assistants are

Viktor Romanyuk who recently stood for election to parliament from the opposition Batkivshchyna Party in the problematical single-mandate electoral district No. 94, has been forced to leave Ukraine

The ruling by Ukraine’s High Administrative Court on 8 February which cancelled – as inaccurate - the election results in two single-mandate electoral districts has caused concern and aroused serious criticism.

Viktor Romanyuk, an opposition Batkivshchyna candidate at the 2012 parliamentary elections has had his application to the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible. He contends the decision of the election commision to invalidate the results at 27 polling stations, before which he had been in the lead, violated his rights

On the third day of Ukraine’s first ever OSCE chairmanship, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has accused he OSCE Election Mission of political bias in its report on the 28 October Parliamentary Elections.

As well as the "step backwards" seen in the October elections and the ongoing issue of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko’s imprisonment, the European Parliament resolution adopted on Thursday expresses concern over the "homosexuality" bill as well as reservations on the Law on Referendums

The conditions for the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement articulated at Monday’s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers were unequivocal, the headlines in the media often worryingly off the mark

Iryna Bekeshkina, renowned sociologist and Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, says that those in power clearly showed at the parliamentary elections that they cannot play by the rules

The Final Report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s election observers is damning, reaching much the same conclusions as almost all other election observers, or “absurd”, if you are a Party of the Regions MP.

The rather surreal law suit brought by leader of the Ukraina Vpered Party against public opinion researchers whose survey found that the party would not reach the requisite 5% threshold has been closed by the court after Korolevska withdrew her claim

Monitoring has found that vast amounts of money were spent on the election trail and on media advertising, both open and covert. There is no liability for infringements of the rules regarding election funding

Viktor Romanyuk, candidate for the United Opposition has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision of District Election Commission No. 94 which found the voting in 27 polling stations invalid after he had won the election on number of votes

The farce with the vote count over many days, the fear of peaceful gatherings, the fiddling of the results – all these turn the image of a confident regime into a scandalous caricature which staggers people in Ukraine and the world

Natalya Korolevska’s party is suing the (authoritative) institutes whose survey predicted that her party Ukraina Vpered would not get enough votes (5%) to enter the Verkhovna Rada. She has asked the court for more time to locates surveys which said otherwise